119-612: Timeline of Polish history From 1795 to 1918, Poland was split between Prussia , the Habsburg monarchy , and Russia and had no independent existence. In 1795 the third and the last of the three 18th-century partitions of Poland ended the existence of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth . Nevertheless, events both within and outside the Polish lands kept hopes for restoration of Polish independence alive throughout
238-586: A major depressive disorder . In December 1838, marital problems caused Mickiewicz to attempt suicide. Celina would die on 5 March 1855. Mickiewicz and his family lived in relative poverty, their major source of income being occasional publication of his work – not a very profitable endeavor. They received support from friends and patrons, but not enough to substantially change their situation. Despite spending most of his remaining years in France, Mickiewicz would never receive French citizenship, nor any support from
357-460: A French-language newspaper, La Tribune des Peuples ( The Peoples' Tribune ), supported by a wealthy Polish émigré activist, Ksawery Branicki [ pl ] . Mickiewicz wrote over 70 articles for the Tribune during its short existence: it came out between 15 March and 10 November 1849, when the authorities shut it down. His articles supported democracy and socialism and many ideals of
476-451: A Jewish legion. He returned ill from a trip to a military camp to his apartment on Yenişehir Street in the Pera (now Beyoğlu) district of Constantinople and died on 26 November 1855. Though Tadeusz Boy-Żeleński and others have speculated that political enemies might have poisoned Mickiewicz, there is no proof of this, and he probably contracted cholera , which claimed other lives there at
595-481: A Polish Mother , 1830), while still patriotic, also began to reflect on the tragedy of resistance. His meetings with refugees and escaping insurgents around 1831 resulted in works such as Reduta Ordona [ pl ] ( Ordon's Redoubt ), Nocleg ( Night Bivouac ) and Śmierć pułkownika [ pl ] ( Death of the Colonel ). Wyka notes the irony that some of the most important literary works about
714-598: A base of operations in Paris . A conservative group headed by Adam Jerzy Czartoryski (one of the leaders of the November Revolt) relied on foreign diplomatic support to restore Poland's status as established by the Congress of Vienna, which Russia had routinely violated beginning in 1819. Otherwise, this group was satisfied with a return to monarchy and traditional social structures. The radical factions never formed
833-641: A brief romance with Henrietta Ewa Ankwiczówna [ pl ] , but class differences again prevented his marrying his new love. Finally about October 1830 he took up residence in Rome, which he declared "the most amiable of foreign cities." Soon after, he learned about the outbreak of the November 1830 Uprising in Poland, but he would not leave Rome until the spring of 1831. On 19 April 1831 Mickiewicz departed Rome, traveling to Geneva and Paris and later, on
952-425: A character in works of fiction, including a large body of dramatized biographies, e.g., in 1900, Stanisław Wyspiański 's Legion . He has also been a subject of many paintings, by Eugène Delacroix , Józef Oleszkiewicz , Aleksander Orłowski , Wojciech Stattler and Walenty Wańkowicz . Monuments and other tributes (streets and schools named for him) abound in Poland and Lithuania, and in other former territories of
1071-476: A cordial reception from the writer and polymath Goethe . He then continued on through Germany all the way to Italy, which he entered via the Alps ' Splügen Pass . Accompanied by an old friend, the poet Antoni Edward Odyniec , he visited Milan , Venice , Florence and Rome . In August that same year (1830) he went to Geneva , where he met fellow Polish Bard Zygmunt Krasiński . During these travels he had
1190-782: A factor when the Bolsheviks pulled Russia out of the war. At Brest-Litovsk the Bolsheviks renounced Russian claims to Poland. Compelled by force of German arms to sign the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk all formerly Polish lands were ceded to the Central Powers . After the German defeat in the Fall of 1918; the overthrow of the Prussian Monarchy and its replacement by the liberal Weimar Republic, the road to an independent Polish state
1309-698: A false passport, to Germany, via Dresden and Leipzig arriving about 13 August in Poznań (German name: Posen), then part of the Kingdom of Prussia . It is possible that during these travels he carried communications from the Italian Carbonari to the French underground, and delivered documents or money for the Polish insurgents from the Polish community in Paris, but reliable information on his activities at
SECTION 10
#17327878625441428-473: A fox and a lion.") On a purely literary level, the poem was notable for incorporating traditional folk elements alongside stylistic innovations. Similarly noteworthy is Mickiewicz's earlier and longer 1823 poem, Grażyna , depicting the exploits of a Lithuanian chieftainess against the Teutonic Knights. Miłosz writes that Grażyna "combines a metallic beat of lines and syntactical rigor with
1547-555: A future incorporation of Vilna and Minsk . The Kingdom was ruled by three Regents , possessed a Parliament and a Government, a small army and its own currency, called the Polish mark . The Regency Kingdom was the fourth and last monarchy in Poland's history. As the war settled into a long stalemate, the issue of Polish self-rule gained greater urgency. Roman Dmowski spent the war years in Western Europe , hoping to persuade
1666-518: A good shelf or two." Koropeckyi notes that, apart from some specialist literature, only five book-length biographies of Mickiewicz have been published in English. He also writes that, though many of Mickiewicz's works have been reprinted numerous times, no language has a "definitive critical edition of his works." A number of museums in Europe are dedicated to Mickiewicz: Adam Mickiewicz is known as
1785-468: A kind of gospel for Polish theater directors of the twentieth century." Over the years he became increasingly possessed by religious mysticism as he fell under the influence of the Polish philosopher Andrzej Towiański , whom he met in 1841. His lectures became a medley of religion and politics, punctuated by controversial attacks on the Catholic Church , and thus brought him under censure by
1904-414: A major influence on his literary work. His early years were shaped by immersion in folklore and by vivid memories, which he later reworked in his poems, of the ruins of Navahrudak Castle and of the triumphant entry and disastrous retreat of Polish and Napoleonic troops during Napoleon's 1812 invasion of Russia , when Mickiewicz was just a teenager. The year 1812 also marked his father's death. Later,
2023-619: A major setback in the 1846 revolt organized in Austrian Poland by the Polish Democratic Society , the leading radical nationalist group. The uprising ended in a bloody fiasco when the peasantry took up arms against the rebel leadership dominated by nobility and gentry, which was regarded as potentially a worse oppressor than the Austrians. By incurring harsh military repression from Austria, the failed revolt left
2142-455: A maturing of his style from sentimentalism / neoclassicism to romanticism , first in his poetry anthologies published in Vilnius in 1822 and 1823; these anthologies included the poem Grażyna and the first-published parts (II and IV) of his major work, Dziady ( Forefathers' Eve ). By 1820 he had already finished another major romantic poem, Oda do młodości ( Ode to Youth ), but it
2261-623: A military unit, the Mickiewicz Legion , to support the insurgents, hoping to liberate the Polish and other Slavic lands. The unit never became large enough to be more than symbolic, and in the fall of 1848 Mickiewicz returned to Paris and became more active again on the political scene. In December 1848 he was offered a post at the Jagiellonian University in Austrian-ruled Kraków , but the offer
2380-491: A notable collection of sonnets (some love sonnets, and a series known as Crimean Sonnets , published a year later). Mickiewicz was welcomed into the leading literary circles of Saint Petersburg and Moscow, where he became a great favourite for his agreeable manners and an extraordinary talent for poetic improvisation. The year 1828 saw the publication of his poem Konrad Wallenrod . Novosiltsev, who recognized its patriotic and subversive message, which had been missed by
2499-790: A plot and motifs dear to the Romantics." It is said by Christien Ostrowski to have inspired Emilia Plater , a military heroine of the November 1830 Uprising . A similar message informs Mickiewicz's " Oda do młodości " (" Ode to Youth "). Mickiewicz's Crimean Sonnets (1825–26) and poems that he would later write in Rome and Lausanne, Miłosz notes, have been "justly ranked among the highest achievements in Polish [lyric poetry]." His 1830 travels in Italy likely inspired him to consider religious matters, and produced some of his best religiously themed works, such as Arcymistrz ( The Grand Master ) and Do Marceliny Łempickiej ( To Marcelina Łempicka ). He
SECTION 20
#17327878625442618-496: A poet and author but as that of ideologue of freedom. Pan Tadeusz ( Sir Thaddeus , published 1834), another of his masterpieces, is an epic poem that draws a picture of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania on the eve of Napoleon's 1812 invasion of Russia . It is written entirely in thirteen-syllable couplets . Originally intended as an apolitical idyll , it became, as Miłosz writes, "something unique in world literature, and
2737-568: A popular hero when Berlin jailed him for insubordination. The Allies broke the resistance of the Central Powers by autumn 1918, as the Habsburg monarchy disintegrated and the German imperial government collapsed. In October 1918, Polish authorities took over Galicia and Cieszyn Silesia . In November 1918, Piłsudski was released from internment in Germany by the revolutionaries and returned to Warsaw. Upon his arrival, on 11 November 1918
2856-518: A single inspired night. A long descriptive poem, Ustęp ( Digression ), accompanying part III and written sometime before it, sums up Mickiewicz's experiences in, and views on, Russia, portrays it as a huge prison, pities the oppressed Russian people, and wonders about their future. Miłosz describes it as a "summation of Polish attitudes towards Russia in the nineteenth century" and notes that it inspired responses from Pushkin ( The Bronze Horseman ) and Joseph Conrad ( Under Western Eyes ). The drama
2975-421: A strategy to combat repression while awaiting an eventual opportunity to achieve self-government. Neither as colorful as the rebellions nor as loftily enshrined in national memory , the quotidian methods of Organic Work proved well suited to the political conditions of the later 19th century. The international balance of forces did not favour the recovery of statehood when both Russia and Germany appeared bent on
3094-568: A student, Mickiewicz, Tomasz Zan and other friends had created a secret organization, the Philomaths . The group focused on self-education but had ties to a more radical, clearly pro-Polish-independence student group, the Filaret Association . An investigation of secret student organizations by Nikolay Novosiltsev , begun in early 1823, led to the arrests of a number of students and ex-student activists including Mickiewicz, who
3213-484: A united front on any issue besides the general goal of independence. Their programs insisted that the Poles liberate themselves by their own efforts and linked independence with republicanism and the emancipation of the serfs . Handicapped by internal division, limited resources, heavy surveillance, and persecution of revolutionary cells in Poland, the Polish national movement suffered numerous losses. The movement sustained
3332-581: Is a revered figure in Lithuania . He is also considered one of the greatest Slavic and European poets. He has been described as a "Slavic bard." He was a leading Romantic dramatist and has been compared in Poland and in Europe with Byron and Goethe . The works of Mickiewicz has also promoted the Lithuanian National Revival and the development of national self-awareness. Mickiewicz's works were began to be translated into
3451-690: The Crimean War . In 1890, his remains were repatriated from Montmorency, Val-d'Oise , in France, to Wawel Cathedral in Kraków , Poland. Adam Mickiewicz was born on 24 December 1798, either at his paternal uncle's estate in Zaosie (now Zavosse) near Navahrudak (in Polish , Nowogródek ) or in Navahrudak itself in what was then part of the Russian Empire and is now Belarus . The region
3570-792: The French Revolution and of the Napoleonic era , though he held few illusions regarding the idealism of the House of Bonaparte . He supported the restoration of the French Empire in 1851. In April 1852 he lost his post at the Collège de France, which he had been allowed to keep up to that point (though without the right to lecture). On 31 October 1852 he was hired as a librarian at the Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal . There he
3689-569: The Kraków Uprising of February 1846. Mickiewicz criticized Towiański's passivity and returned to the traditional Catholic Church. In 1847 Mickiewicz befriended American journalist, critic and women's-rights advocate Margaret Fuller . In March 1848 he was part of a Polish delegation received in audience by Pope Pius IX , whom he asked to support the enslaved nations and the French Revolution of 1848 . Soon after, in April 1848, he organized
History of Poland (1795–1918) - Misplaced Pages Continue
3808-622: The Lithuanian language when he was still alive (e.g. Simonas Daukantas , one of the pioneers of the Lithuanian National Revival, translated and retold a story Żywila / Živilė in 1822, Kiprijonas Nezabitauskis translated Litania pielgrzyma / Piligrimų litanija and it was published in Paris in ~1836, Liudvikas Adomas Jucevičius translated a ballad Trzech Budrysów / Trys Budriai in 1837). Moreover, Mickiewicz's works has influenced
3927-559: The Polish National Committee , which supported the Russian side. In 1916, attempting to increase Polish support for the Central Powers and to raise a Polish army the German and Austrian emperors declared a new Kingdom of Poland, (see Regency Kingdom of Poland (1916–1918) . The new Kingdom consisted only of a small part of the old Commonwealth, i.e. the territory of Congress Poland, although some promises were made about
4046-585: The Polish Socialist Party , was the largest socialist party in the entire Russian Empire. The National Democracy of Roman Dmowski became the leading vehicle of the right by espousing a doctrine that combined nationalism with hostility toward Jews and other minorities. By the turn of the 20th century, Polish political life had emerged from the relative quiescence of Organic Work and entered a stage of renewed assertiveness. In particular, Piłsudski and Dmowski had initiated what would be long careers as
4165-694: The Regency Council of the Kingdom of Poland ceded all responsibilities to him and Piłsudski took control over the newly created state as its provisional Chief of State. Soon all the local governments that had been created in the last months of the war pledged allegiance to the central government in Warsaw. Independent Poland, which had been absent from the map of Europe for 123 years, was reborn. The newly created state initially consisted of former Congress Poland , western Galicia (with Lwów besieged by
4284-582: The Ukrainians ) and part of Cieszyn Silesia . Timeline of Polish history This is a timeline of Polish history , comprising important legal and territorial changes and political events in Poland and its predecessor states. To read about the background to these events, see History of Poland . See also the list of Polish monarchs and list of prime ministers of Poland . | La Tene Culture || || Adam Mickiewicz Adam Bernard Mickiewicz (24 December 1798 – 26 November 1855)
4403-404: The pagan ancestor commemoration that had been practiced by Slavic and Baltic peoples on All Souls' Day . The year 1832 saw the publication of part III: much superior to the earlier parts, a "laboratory of innovative genres, styles and forms". Part III was largely written over a few days; the "Great Improvisation" section, a "masterpiece of Polish poetry", is said to have been created during
4522-493: The restoration of Lithuania's statehood in 1918. Mickiewicz's importance extends beyond literature to the broader spheres of culture and politics; Wyka writes that he was a "singer and epic poet of the Polish people and a pilgrim for the freedom of nations." Scholars have used the expression "cult of Mickiewicz" to describe the reverence in which he is held as a "national prophet." On hearing of Mickiewicz's death, his fellow bard Krasiński wrote: For men of my generation, he
4641-411: The "Polish Question" on the agenda of international issues needing resolution. Most immediately, Napoleon Bonaparte had established a new empire in France in 1804 following that country's revolution. Other powers' refusal of the new status of France kept Europe at war for the next decade and brought him into conflict with the same east European powers that had beleaguered Poland in the last decades of
4760-578: The 1830 Uprising were written by Mickiewicz, who never took part in a battle or even saw a battlefield. His Księgi narodu polskiego i pielgrzymstwa polskiego [ pl ] ( Books of the Polish Nation and the Polish Pilgrimage , 1832) opens with a historical-philosophical discussion of the history of humankind in which Mickiewicz argues that history is the history of now-unrealized freedom that awaits many oppressed nations in
4879-545: The 1830s (as early as 1830; as late as 1837) he worked on a futurist or science-fiction work, A History of the Future [ pl ] . ( Historia przyszłości , or L’histoire d’avenir ) It predicted inventions similar to radio and television, and interplanetary communication using balloons . Written partially in French, it was never completed and was partly destroyed by the author, but parts of its seven versions survive. Other French-language works by Mickiewicz include
History of Poland (1795–1918) - Misplaced Pages Continue
4998-636: The 19th century. Poland's geopolitical location on the Northern European Lowlands became especially important in a period when its expansionist neighbors, the Kingdom of Prussia and Imperial Russia, involved themselves intensely in European rivalries and alliances as modern nation-states took form over the entire continent . At the turn of the 19th century, Europe had begun to feel the impact of momentous political and intellectual movements that, among their other effects, would keep
5117-541: The Allies to unify the Polish lands under Russian rule as an initial step toward liberation. In the meantime, Piłsudski had correctly predicted that the war would ruin all three of the partitioners, a conclusion most people thought highly unlikely before 1918. Piłsudski therefore formed the Polish Legions to assist the Central Powers in defeating Russia as the first step toward full independence for Poland. Much of
5236-1039: The British-French victory over Russia at the Battle of Bomarsund in Åland in August 1854. Polish émigrés associated with the Hôtel Lambert persuaded him to become active again in politics. Soon after the Crimean War broke out (October 1853), the French government entrusted him with a diplomatic mission. He left Paris on 11 September 1855, arriving in Constantinople , in the Ottoman Empire , on 22 September. There, working with Michał Czajkowski (Sadyk Pasha), he began organizing Polish forces to fight under Ottoman command against Russia. With his friend Armand Lévy he also set about organizing
5355-460: The Christian order of Teutonic Knights against the pagans of Lithuania, is a thinly veiled allusion to the long feud between Russia and Poland. The plot involves the use of subterfuge against a stronger enemy, and the poem analyzes moral dilemmas faced by the Polish insurgents who would soon launch the November 1830 Uprising . Controversial to an older generation of readers, Konrad Wallenrod
5474-471: The French government. The messianic element conflicted with Roman Catholic teachings, and some of his works were placed on the Church's list of prohibited books , though both Mickiewicz and Towiański regularly attended Catholic mass and encouraged their followers to do so. In 1846 Mickiewicz severed his ties with Towiański, following the rise of revolutionary sentiment in Europe, manifested in events such as
5593-602: The French government. By the late 1830s he was less active as a writer, and also less visible on the Polish émigré political scene. In 1838 Mickiewicz became professor of Latin literature at the Lausanne Academy , in Switzerland. His lectures were well received, and in 1840 he was appointed to the newly established chair of Slavic languages and literatures at the Collège de France . Leaving Lausanne, he
5712-472: The German defeat and the replacement of Hohenzollern rule by the Weimar Republic and the collapse of Habsburg Austria-Hungary, Poland became an independent republic. The war split the ranks of the three partitioning empires, pitting Russia as defender of Serbia and ally of Britain and France against the leading members of the Central Powers , Germany and Austria-Hungary. This circumstance afforded
5831-496: The Lithuanian language, although some Polish commentators describe it as limited. In the poem Grażyna , Mickiewicz quoted one sentence from Kristijonas Donelaitis ' Lithuanian-language poem Metai . In Pan Tadeusz , there is a un- Polonized Lithuanian name Baublys. Furthermore, due to Mickiewicz's position as lecturer on Lithuanian folklore and mythology in Collège de France, it can be inferred that he must have known
5950-518: The Moscow censors, unsuccessfully attempted to sabotage its publication and to damage Mickiewicz's reputation. In Moscow, Mickiewicz met the Polish journalist and novelist Henryk Rzewuski and the Polish composer and piano virtuoso Maria Szymanowska , whose daughter, Celina Szymanowska , Mickiewicz would later marry in Paris, France. He also befriended the great Russian poet Alexander Pushkin and Decembrist leaders including Kondraty Ryleyev . It
6069-423: The Poles political leverage as both sides offered pledges of concessions and future autonomy in exchange for Polish loyalty and army recruits. The Austrians wanted to incorporate Congress Poland into their territory of Galicia , so even before the war they allowed nationalist organisations to form there (for example, Związek Strzelecki ). The Russians recognized the Polish right to autonomy and allowed formation of
SECTION 50
#17327878625446188-567: The Polish lands throughout the late 19th century, giving them a more modern aspect and altering traditional patterns of life. Especially in Russian Poland and the Silesian regions under German control, mining and manufacturing started on a large scale. This development sped the process of urbanization, and the emergence of capitalism began to reduce the relative importance of the landed aristocracy in Polish society. A considerable segment of
6307-414: The Polish nationalists in a poor position to participate in the wave of national revolution that crossed Europe in 1848 and 1849. The stubborn idealism of this uprising's leaders emphasized individual liberty and separate national identity rather than establishment of a unified republic—a significant change of political philosophy from earlier movements. The last and most tenacious of the Polish uprisings of
6426-411: The Polish nobility as allies in the complex political calculus of its multinational realm. In return for loyalty, Austrian Poland, or Galicia , received considerable administrative and cultural autonomy. Galicia gained a reputation as an oasis of toleration amidst the oppression of German and Russian Poland. The Galician provincial Sejm acted as a semiautonomous parliamentary body, and Poles represented
6545-511: The Polish serfs in early 1864, an act that constituted the most important event in history of nineteenth-century Poland, it removed a major rallying point from the agenda of potential Polish revolutionaries. Increasing oppression at Russian hands after failed national uprisings finally convinced Polish leaders that the recent insurrection was premature. During the decades that followed the January Insurrection, Poles largely forsook
6664-496: The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth: Ukraine and Belarus. He has also been the subject of many statues and busts by Antoine Bourdelle , David d'Angers , Antoni Kurzawa [ pl ] , Władysław Oleszczyński , Zbigniew Pronaszko [ pl ] , Teodor Rygier , Wacław Szymanowski and Jakub Tatarkiewicz . In 1898, the 100th anniversary of his birth, a towering statue by Cyprian Godebski
6783-766: The Roman Catholic Church: the Cultural Struggle ( Kulturkampf ) of Chancellor Otto von Bismarck to bring the Roman Catholic Church under state control and the Russian campaign to extend Orthodoxy throughout the empire. The Polish subjects under Austrian jurisdiction (after 1867 the Habsburg Empire was commonly known as Austria-Hungary ) confronted a generally more lenient regime. Poles suffered no religious persecution in predominantly Catholic Austria, and Vienna counted on
6902-444: The Russian Empire and, like many of his compatriots , lived out the rest of his life abroad. He settled first in Rome, then in Paris, where for a little over three years he lectured on Slavic literature at the Collège de France . He was an activist, striving for a democratic and independent Poland. He died, probably of cholera , at Istanbul in the Ottoman Empire , where he had gone to help organize Polish forces to fight Russia in
7021-409: The Russians also evicted and deported hundreds of thousands of its inhabitants suspected of collaborating with the enemy. By the end of 1915, the Germans had occupied the entire Russian sector, including Warsaw . In 1916 another Russian offensive in Galicia exacerbated the already desperate situation of civilians in the war zone; about 1 million Polish refugees fled eastward behind Russian lines during
7140-485: The brutal might of reactionary empires." Mickiewicz has been written about or had works dedicated to him by many authors in Poland ( Asnyk , Gałczyński , Iwaszkiewicz , Jastrun , Kasprowicz , Lechoń , Konopnicka , Teofil Lenartowicz , Norwid , Przyboś , Różewicz , Słonimski , Słowacki, Staff , Tetmajer , Tuwim , Ujejski , Wierzyński , Zaleski and others) and by authors outside Poland ( Bryusov , Goethe, Pushkin, Uhland , Vrchlický and others). He has been
7259-430: The century, also used the tragic history of his nation as a major inspiration. Nurtured by these influences, nationalism awoke first among the intelligentsia and certain segments of the nobility, then more gradually in the peasantry. At the end of the process, a broader definition of nationhood had replaced the old class-based "noble patriotism" of Poland. For several decades, the Polish national movement gave priority to
SECTION 60
#17327878625447378-441: The continent, becoming the most dynamic and appealing political doctrine of its time. By stressing the value and dignity of native cultures and languages, nationalism offered a rationale for ethnic loyalty and Romanticism was the artistic element of 19th-century European culture that exerted the strongest influence on the Polish national consciousness. The Romantic movement was a natural partner of political nationalism, for it echoed
7497-401: The dramas Konfederaci barscy [ pl ] ( The Bar Confederates ) and Jacques Jasiński, ous les deux Polognes [ pl ] ( Jacques Jasiński, or the Two Polands ). These would not achieve much recognition, and would not be published till 1866. Adam Mickiewicz did not write any poems in Lithuanian. However, it is known that Mickiewicz did have some understanding of
7616-447: The duchy as it chased Napoleon out of Russia in 1813, however, and Polish expectations ended with the final defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo in 1815. In the subsequent peace settlement of the Congress of Vienna , the victorious Austrians and Prussians swept away the Duchy of Warsaw and reconfirmed most of the terms of the final partition of Poland. Although brief, the Napoleonic period occupies an important place in Polish history. Much of
7735-818: The end of his most productive literary period. Mickiewicz would create further notable works, such as Lausanne Lyrics [ pl ] , 1839–40) and Zdania i uwagi ( Thoughts and Remarks , 1834–40), but neither would achieve the fame of his earlier works. His relative literary silence, beginning in the mid-1830s, has been variously interpreted: he may have lost his talent; he may have chosen to focus on teaching and on political writing and organizing. On 22 July 1834, in Paris, he married Celina Szymanowska, daughter of composer and concert pianist Maria Agata Szymanowska . They would have six children (two daughters, Maria [ pl ] and Helena; and four sons, Władysław [ pl ] , Aleksander, Jan and Józef). Celina later became mentally ill, possibly with
7854-475: The eventual eradication of Polish national identity. The German Empire , established in 1871 as an expanded version of the Prussian state, aimed at the assimilation of its eastern provinces inhabited by Poles. At the same time, St. Petersburg attempted to russify the former Congress Poland, joining Berlin in levying restrictions against use of the Polish language and cultural expression. Poles under Russian and German rule also endured official campaigns against
7973-436: The face of politics as well, giving rise to new parties and movements that would dominate the Polish landscape for the next century. The grievances of the lower classes led to the formation of peasant and socialist parties. Communism gained only a marginal following, but a more moderate socialist faction led by Józef Piłsudski won broader support through its emphatic advocacy of Polish independence. By 1905 Piłsudski's party,
8092-441: The foundations of [many] parties and ideologies" in Poland from the 19th century to this day, "down to the rappers in Poland's post-socialist blocks, who can somehow still declare that 'if Mickiewicz was alive today, he'd be a good rapper .'" While Mickiewicz's popularity has endured two centuries in Poland, he is less well known abroad, but in the 19th century he had won substantial international fame among "people that dared resist
8211-548: The future. It is followed by a longer "moral catechism " aimed at Polish émigrés. The book sets out a messianist metaphor of Poland as the " Christ of nations ". Described by Wyka as a propaganda piece, it was relatively simple, using biblical metaphors and the like to reach less-discriminating readers. It became popular not only among Poles but, in translations, among some other peoples, primarily those which lacked their own sovereign states. The Books were influential in framing Mickiewicz's image among many not as that of
8330-443: The goal of immediate independence and turned instead to fortifying the nation through the subtler means of education, economic development, and modernization. This approach took the name "Organic Work" ( Praca organiczna ) for its philosophy of strengthening Polish society at the grass roots, influenced by positivism . For some, the adoption of Organic Work meant permanent resignation to foreign rule, but many advocates recommended it as
8449-431: The greatest Slavic and European poets and has been dubbed a "Slavic bard". A leading Romantic dramatist, he has been compared in Poland and Europe to Byron and Goethe . He is known chiefly for the poetic drama Dziady ( Forefathers' Eve ) and the national epic poem Pan Tadeusz . His other influential works include Konrad Wallenrod and Grażyna . All these served as inspiration for uprisings against
8568-487: The heavy fighting on the war's Eastern Front took place on the territory of the former Polish state. In 1914 Russian forces advanced very close to Kraków before being beaten back. The next spring, heavy fighting occurred around Gorlice and Przemyśl , to the east of Kraków in Galicia. In 1915 Polish territories were looted and abandoned by the retreating Russian army , trying to emulate the scorched earth policy of 1812;
8687-490: The immediate restoration of independence, a drive that found expression in a series of armed rebellions . The insurgencies arose mainly in the Russian zone of partition to the east, about three-quarters of which was formerly Polish territory. After the Congress of Vienna, Russia had organized its Polish lands as the Congress Poland , granting it a quite liberal constitution , its own army, and limited autonomy within
8806-666: The insurgency in August 1864, Russia abolished the Congress Poland altogether and revoked the separate status of the Polish lands, incorporating them directly as the Western Region of the Russian Empire. The region was placed under the dictatorial rule of Mikhail Muravyov-Vilensky , who became known as the Hangman of Vilnius. All Polish citizens were assimilated into the empire. When Russia officially emancipated
8925-658: The language sufficiently to lecture about it. It is known that Adam Mickiewicz often sang Lithuanian folk songs with the Samogitian Ludmilew Korylski. For example, in the early 1850s when in Paris, Mickiewicz interrupted a Lithuanian folk song sung by Ludmilew Korylski, commenting that he was singing it wrong and hence wrote down on a piece of paper how to sing the song correctly. On the piece of paper, there are fragments of three different Lithuanian folk songs ( Ejk Tatuszeli i bytiu darża , Atjo żałnieros par łauka , Ej warneli, jod warneli isz ), which are
9044-609: The latter, like the Jews themselves, had a more urbanized, cosmopolitan outlook. Another factor, not to be overlooked or underestimated is the traditional language spoken by the Ashkenazi Jews of Central and Eastern Europe, Yiddish, is also a Germanic language written in Hebrew characters, which afforded some natural compatibility with the German language dominated Austria-Hungarian and Prussian cultures. These transformations changed
9163-503: The legend and symbolism of modern Polish patriotism derives from this period, including the conviction that Polish independence is a necessary element of a just and legitimate European order. This conviction was simply expressed in a fighting slogan of the time, " for your freedom and ours ." Moreover, the appearance of the Duchy of Warsaw so soon after the partitions proved that the seemingly final historical death sentence delivered in 1795
9282-529: The mid-19th century erupted in the Russian-occupied sector in January 1863 (see January Uprising ). Following Russia's disastrous defeat in the Crimean War , the government of Tsar Alexander II enacted a series of liberal reforms, including liberation of the serfs throughout the empire. The high-handed imposition of land reforms in Poland aroused hostility among the conservative landed nobility on
9401-588: The mother of Juliusz Słowacki . (In 1975 this poem was set to music in Polish and Russian by Soviet composer David Tukhmanov .) Mickiewicz crossed the border into Russia about 11 November 1824, arriving in Saint Petersburg later that month. He would spend most of the next five years in Saint Petersburg and Moscow, except for a notable 1824 to 1825 excursion to Odessa , then on to Crimea . That visit, from February to November 1825, inspired
9520-403: The nationalist sympathy for folk cultures and manifested a general air of disdain for the conservative political order of post-Napoleonic Europe. Under this influence, Polish literature flourished anew in the works of a school of 19th-century Romantic poets, led by Adam Mickiewicz . Mickiewicz concentrated on patriotic themes and the glorious national past. Frédéric Chopin , a leading composer of
9639-421: The one hand, and a group of young radical intellectuals influenced by Karl Marx and the Russian liberal Alexander Herzen , on the other. Repeating the pattern of 1830–31, the open revolt of the January Insurrection by Congress Poland failed to win foreign backing. Although its socially progressive program could not mobilize the peasants, the rebellion persisted stubbornly for fifteen months. After finally crushing
9758-617: The other peoples remaining from the old heterogeneous Commonwealth of Two Nations . The movement of the former noble class into cities created a new urban professional class. However, the peasants that tried to move to the cities, found all the better positions already occupied by Jews and Germans. This contributed to the national tensions among the Poles, Germans, and Jews. At this time the Jewish population in Prussian Poland tended to identify with and want to belong to Germany, insofar as
9877-677: The paramount figures in the civic affairs of Poland. After 1900 political activity was suppressed only in the Prussian sector. At the outbreak of the First World War Poland's geographical position between Germany and Russia had meant much fighting and horrific human and material losses for the Poles between 1914 and 1918. At the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk in spring 1918, revolutionary Russia renounced Russian claims to Poland. Following
9996-410: The peasantry abandoned the overburdened land. Millions of Poles emigrated to North America and other destinations, and millions more migrated to cities to form the new industrial labour force. These shifts stimulated fresh social tensions. Urban workers bore the full range of hardships associated with early capitalism , and the intensely nationalistic atmosphere of the day bred frictions between Poles and
10115-467: The pioneers of the Lithuanian National Revival in the 19th century (e.g. Antanas Baranauskas , Jonas Basanavičius , Stasys Matulaitis , Mykolas Biržiška , Petras Vileišis ). Furthermore, the beginning of Vincas Kudirka 's Tautiška giesmė (1898), the national anthem of Lithuania since 1919 and since 1988, is a paraphrase of the beginning of a poem Pan Tadeusz . The translation into Lithuanian and publishing of Mickiewicz's works has continued after
10234-426: The poet's ability and desire to write, and his longing for his homeland. One of his major works, Dziady (Forefathers' Eve), comprises several parts written over an extended period of time. It began with publication of parts II and IV in 1823. Miłosz remarks that it was "Mickiewicz's major theatrical achievement", a work which Mickiewicz saw as ongoing and to be continued in further parts. Its title refers to
10353-470: The poet's personality and subsequent works were greatly influenced by his four years of living and studying in Vilnius . His first poems, such as the 1818 Zima miejska ( City Winter ) and the 1819 Kartofla [ pl ] ( Potato ), were classical in style, influenced by Voltaire . His Ballads and Romances and poetry anthologies published in 1822 (including the opening poem Romantyczność [ pl ] , Romanticism ) and 1823 mark
10472-452: The previous century. An alliance of convenience was the natural result of this situation. Volunteer Polish legions attached themselves to Bonaparte's armies, hoping that in return the emperor would allow an independent Poland to reappear out of his conquests. Although Napoleon promised more than he ever intended to deliver to the Polish cause, in 1807 he created a Duchy of Warsaw from Prussian territory that had been part of old Poland and
10591-662: The problem of how to classify it has remained the crux of a constant quarrel among scholars"; it "has been called 'the last epos' in world literature". Pan Tadeusz was not highly regarded by contemporaries, nor by Mickiewicz himself, but in time it won acclaim as "the highest achievement in all Polish literature." The occasional poems that Mickiewicz wrote in his final decades have been described as "exquisite, gnomic, extremely short and concise". His Lausanne Lyrics , (1839–40) are, writes Miłosz, "untranslatable masterpieces of metaphysical meditation. In Polish literature, they are examples of that pure poetry that verges on silence." In
10710-533: The region in the empire government in Vienna. In the late 19th century, the universities of Kraków and Lviv became the centers of Polish intellectual activity, and Kraków became the center of Polish art and thought. Even after the restoration of independence, many residents of southern Poland retained a touch of nostalgia for the days of the Habsburg Empire. Profound social and economic forces operated on
10829-528: The sole, as of now, known Lithuanian writings by Adam Mickiewicz. The folk songs are known to have been sung in Darbėnai . A prime figure of the Polish Romantic period , Mickiewicz is counted as one of Poland's Three Bards (the others being Zygmunt Krasiński and Juliusz Słowacki ) and the greatest poet in all Polish literature . Mickiewicz has long been regarded as Poland's national poet and
10948-624: The start of romanticism in Poland . Mickiewicz's influence popularized the use of folklore , folk literary forms, and historism in Polish romantic literature. His exile to Moscow exposed him to a cosmopolitan environment, more international than provincial Vilnius and Kaunas in Lithuania. This period saw a further evolution in his writing style, with Sonety (Sonnets, 1826) and Konrad Wallenrod (1828), both published in Russia. The Sonety , mainly comprising his Crimean Sonnets , highlight
11067-611: The support of the peasantry. By September 1831, the Russians had subdued Polish resistance and forced 6,000 resistance fighters into exile in France, beginning a time of harsh repression of intellectual and religious activity throughout Poland. At the same time, Congress Poland lost its constitution and its army. After the failure of the November Revolt , clandestine conspiratorial activity continued on Polish territory. An exiled Polish political and intellectual elite established
11186-542: The third part of his Dziady (smuggled into partitioned Poland), as well as of The Books of the Polish People and of the Polish Pilgrimage [ pl ] , which Mickiewicz self-published. During this time, he made acquaintances with his compatriot the composer Frederic Chopin who would be one of Mickiewicz‘s closest friends in Paris. In 1834 he published another masterpiece, his epic poem Pan Tadeusz . Pan Tadeusz , his longest poetic work, marked
11305-470: The third part of his poem Dziady . On 31 July 1832 he arrived in Paris, accompanied by a close friend and fellow ex-Philomath, the future geologist and Chilean educator Ignacy Domeyko . In Paris, Mickiewicz became active in many Polish émigré groups and published articles in Pielgrzym Polski [ pl ] ( The Polish Pilgrim ). The fall of 1832 saw the publication, in Paris, of
11424-586: The three imperial powers that had partitioned the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth out of existence . Mickiewicz was born in the Russian-partitioned territories of the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania , which had been part of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth , and was active in the struggle to win independence for his home region. After, as a consequence, spending five years exiled to central Russia, in 1829 he succeeded in leaving
11543-766: The time is scarce. Ultimately he never crossed into Russian Poland , where the Uprising was mainly happening; he stayed in German Poland (historically known to Poles as Wielkopolska , or Greater Poland), where he was well received by members of the local Polish nobility. He had a brief liaison with Konstancja Łubieńska [ pl ] at her family estate in Śmiełów . Starting in March 1832, Mickiewicz stayed several months in Dresden, in Saxony , where he wrote
11662-582: The time. Mickiewicz's remains were transported to France, boarding ship on 31 December 1855, and were buried at Montmorency, Val-d'Oise , on 21 January 1861. In 1890 they were disinterred, moved to Austrian Poland , and on 4 July entombed in the Crypts of the Bards [ pl ] of Kraków's Wawel Cathedral , a place of final repose for a number of persons important to Poland's political and cultural history. Mickiewicz's childhood environment exerted
11781-471: The tsarist empire. In the 1820s, however, Russian rule grew more arbitrary, and secret societies were formed by intellectuals in several cities to plot an insurrection. In November 1830, Polish troops in Warsaw rose in revolt. When the government of Congress Poland proclaimed solidarity with the rebel forces shortly thereafter, a new Polish-Russian war began. The rebels' requests for aid from France were ignored, and their reluctance to abolish serfdom cost them
11900-610: The war zone uninhabitable. In 1917 two separate events decisively changed the character of the war and set it on a course toward the rebirth of Poland. The United States entered the conflict on the Allied side, while a process of revolutionary upheaval in Russia weakened her and then removed the Russians from the Eastern Front, finally bringing the Bolsheviks to power in that country. The army of Tsarist Russia ceased to be
12019-509: The war. Although the Russian offensive of 1916 caught the Germans and Austrians by surprise, poor communications and logistics prevented the Russians from taking full advantage of their situation. A total of 2 million Polish troops fought with the armies of the three occupying powers, and 450,000 died. Several hundred thousand Polish civilians were moved to labour camps in Germany. The scorched-earth retreat strategies of both sides left much of
12138-408: Was Barbara Mickiewicz, née Majewska. Adam was the second-born son in the family. Mickiewicz spent his childhood in Navahrudak, initially taught by his mother and private tutors. From 1807 to 1815 he attended a Dominican school following a curriculum that had been designed by the now-defunct Polish Commission of National Education , which had been the world's first ministry of education . He
12257-475: Was a Polish poet , dramatist, essayist, publicist, translator and political activist . He is regarded as national poet in Poland, Lithuania and Belarus. He also largely influenced Ukrainian literature . A principal figure in Polish Romanticism , he is one of Poland's " Three Bards " ( Polish : Trzej Wieszcze ) and is widely regarded as Poland's greatest poet. He is also considered one of
12376-665: Was a mediocre student, although active in games, theatricals, and the like. In September 1815, Mickiewicz enrolled at the Imperial University of Vilnius , studying to be a teacher. After graduating, under the terms of his government scholarship, he taught secondary school at Kaunas from 1819 to 1823. In 1818, in the Polish-language Tygodnik Wileński [ pl ] (Wilno Weekly), he published his first poem, Zima miejska [ pl ] ( City Winter ). The next few years would see
12495-401: Was an authority to the young insurgents of 1830–31, who expected him to participate in the fighting (the poet Maurycy Gosławski [ pl ] wrote a dedicated poem urging him to do so). Yet it is likely that Mickiewicz was no longer as idealistic and supportive of military action as he had been a few years earlier, and his new works such as Do Matki Polki [ pl ] ( To
12614-464: Was considered to be too patriotic and revolutionary for publication and would not appear officially for many years. About the summer of 1820, Mickiewicz met the love of his life, Maryla Wereszczakówna [ pl ] . They were unable to marry due to his family's poverty and relatively low social status; in addition, she was already engaged to Count Wawrzyniec Puttkamer [ pl ] , whom she would marry in 1821. In 1817, while still
12733-592: Was erected in Warsaw. Its base carries the inscription, "To the Poet from the People." In 1955, the 100th anniversary of his death, the University of Poznań adopted him as its official patron. Much has been written about Mickiewicz, though the vast majority of this scholarly and popular literature is available only in Polish. Works devoted to him, according to Koropeckyi, author of a 2008 English biography, "could fill
12852-453: Was first staged by Stanisław Wyspiański in 1901, becoming, in Miłosz's words, "a kind of national sacred play, occasionally forbidden by censorship because of its emotional impact upon the audience." The Polish government's 1968 closing down of a production of the play sparked the 1968 Polish political crisis . Mickiewicz's Konrad Wallenrod (1828), a narrative poem describing battles of
12971-409: Was made an honorary Lausanne Academy professor. Mickiewicz would, however, hold the Collège de France post for little more than three years, his last lecture being delivered on 28 May 1844. His lectures were popular, drawing many listeners in addition to enrolled students, and receiving reviews in the press. Some would be remembered much later; his sixteenth lecture, on Slavic theater, "was to become
13090-497: Was milk and honey, gall and life's blood: we all descend from him. He carried us off on the surging billow of his inspiration and cast us into the world. Edward Henry Lewinski Corwin described Mickiewicz's works as Promethean , as "reaching more Polish hearts" than the other Polish Bards, and affirmed Danish critic Georg Brandes ' assessment of Mickiewicz's works as "healthier" than those of Byron , Shakespeare , Homer , and Goethe. Koropeckyi writes that Mickiewicz has "informed
13209-411: Was not necessarily the end of the Polish nation-state. Instead, many observers came to believe that favourable circumstances would free Poland from foreign domination. The intellectual and artistic climate of the early 19th century further stimulated the growth of Polish demands for self-government. During these decades, modern nationalism took shape and rapidly developed a massive following throughout
13328-544: Was on the periphery of Lithuania proper and had been part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania until the Third Partition of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (1795). Its upper class, including Mickiewicz's family, were either Polish or Polonized . The poet's father, Mikołaj Mickiewicz, a lawyer, was a member of the Polish nobility ( szlachta ) and bore the hereditary Poraj coat-of-arms ; Adam's mother
13447-564: Was opened. The vacating of both Russia and Germany from Poland gave free rein to the calls of Woodrow Wilson at the Versailles Peace Conference, echoing those of the new Bolshevik regime, to liberate the Poles and other peoples from Greater Power suzerainty. The thirteenth of Wilson's Fourteen Points adopted the resurrection of Poland as one of the main aims of the First World War. Józef Piłsudski became
13566-602: Was seen by the young as a call to arms and was praised as such by an Uprising leader, poet Ludwik Nabielak [ pl ] . Miłosz describes Konrad Wallenrod (named for its protagonist) as "the most committed politically of all Mickiewczi's poems." The point of the poem, though obvious to many, escaped the Russian censors, and the poem was allowed to be published, complete with its telling motto drawn from Machiavelli : "Dovete adunque sapere come sono due generazioni di combattere – bisogna essere volpe e leone." ("Ye shall know that there are two ways of fighting – you must be
13685-402: Was soon withdrawn after pressure from Austrian authorities. In the winter of 1848–49, Polish composer Frédéric Chopin , in the final months of his own life, visited his ailing compatriot soothed the poet's nerves with his piano music. Over a dozen years earlier, Chopin had set two of Mickiewicz's poems to music (see Polish songs by Frédéric Chopin ). In the winter of 1849 Mickiewicz founded
13804-402: Was still inhabited by Poles. Basically a French puppet, the duchy did enjoy some degree of self-government, and many Poles believed that further Napoleonic victories would bring restoration of the entire commonwealth. In 1809, under Jozef Poniatowski , nephew of Stanislaw II August , the duchy reclaimed some of the territories taken by Austria in the third partition. The Russian Army occupied
13923-489: Was taken into custody and imprisoned at Vilnius' Basilian Monastery in late 1823 or early 1824 (sources disagree as to the date). After investigation into his political activities, specifically his membership in the Philomaths, in 1824 Mickiewicz was banished to central Russia . Within a few hours of receiving the decree on 22 October 1824, he penned a poem into an album belonging to Salomea Bécu [ pl ] ,
14042-596: Was thanks to his friendships with many influential individuals that he was eventually able to obtain a passport and permission to leave Russia for Western Europe . After serving five years of exile to Russia, Mickiewicz received permission to go abroad in 1829. On 1 June that year, he arrived in Weimar in Germany. By 6 June he was in Berlin , where he attended lectures by the philosopher Hegel . In February 1830 he visited Prague , later returning to Weimar, where he received
14161-534: Was visited by another Polish poet, Cyprian Norwid , who wrote of the meeting in his work Czarne kwiaty. Białe kwiaty [ pl ] ; and there Mickiewicz's wife Celina died. Mickiewicz welcomed the Crimean War of 1853–1856, which he hoped would lead to a new European order including a restored independent Poland. His last composition, a Latin ode Ad Napolionem III Caesarem Augustum Ode in Bomersundum captum , honored Napoleon III and celebrated
#543456